Post construction



Jan. 7, 19 69 W.T.ALVARADO POST CONSTRUCTION I Filed July 1, 1966fvvzzvrae. mum 7. flu/nenoo Wm, 4. fm {5% United States Patent 3,420,013POST CONSTRUCTION William T. Alvarado, El Monte, Calif., assignor toAlvarado Manufacturing Company, Inc., El Monte, Calif, a corporation ofCalifornia Filed July 1, 1966, Ser. No. 562,345 U.S. Cl. 52-161 Int. Cl.E02d /74 1 Claim ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This invention relates to apost or standard construction and more particularly to a novel means andmethod for installing and anchoring in a supporting means, such as afloor, a post or standard utilized with or without horizontallyextending rails for forming gateways, aisles, barriers, entrances, andthe like, for controlling movement of persons and carts, such as insuper-markets and other merchandising stores.

Prior proposed post and rail constructions have included a base memberprovided with an upstanding collar and a laterally extending flange. Anupstanding post has been secured to the base collar by welding or bythreading. Such upstanding posts are often provided with side fittingsfor reception of ends of horizontal rails, the other end of which mustbe aligned with a similar fitting on an adjacent post. Such priorproposed constructio'ns usually anchored the base flange to a floor bymeans of four anchor bolts which were passed through the flange and wereconnected to the floor by suitable means such as threading. To avoidstrains on the base member it was necessary that the floor area and thebottom face of the base properly meet in a common plane. The use of fouranchor bolts spaced at 90 often made it difiicult to firmly andnon-yieldably fix the base flange to the floor. Moreover, such a priorproposed base flange had relatively great width to accommodate thesetting of the anchor bolts. Such width when the post is used as a gatepost often presented an obstruction to the wheels of carts which werepassed through the gate or to the feet of persons walking through thegate who might thereover. When posts were welded to such a base flangeand the post included a sidewardly directed fitting for a rail the "iceviates many of the disadvantages of the above mentioned prior postconstructions.

The primary object of the present invention, therefore, is to discloseand provide a novel post construction and means for anchoring such apost construction in an eflicient and effective manner.

An object of the invention is to disclose and provide a postconstruction for supermarket use in which only a narrow base flange isrequired while maintaining the necessary standards of strength andnon-yieldability of such a post.

Another object of the invention is to disclose and provide a postconstruction in which a segment of an annular base flange may be omittedwithout loss of strength or rigidity of the post mounting and wherebypassage of wheels of carts close to the posts is not interfered with.

Still another object of the invention is to disclose and provide a novelpost construction wherein alignment of side openings carried by such apost is facilitated and not restricted by the anchoring of the post to asupporting floor structure.

A still further object of the invention is to disclose and provide anovel post construction and means for mounting the same on a supportingstructure wherein maximum utilization of space between posts isafforded, alignment and realignment of such posts are facilitated, andeffective savings are achieved by reduction in costs of the postconstruction and in the time and labor for installation thereof.

The invention contemplates a post construction which utilizes only asingle anchoring means.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention will be readilyapparent from the following description of the drawings in which anexemplary embodiment of the present invention is shown.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary perspective view of a post and side railconstruction embodying this invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged vertical sectional view of a post constructionshown in FIG. 1 taken in a plane passing through the axis of the post.

FIG. 3 is a top plan view of a modified base member for the postconstruction shown in FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary sectional view of another modification of thebase member.

In FIG. 1 there is fragmentarily shown a rail construction which may beinstalled in a supermarket for directing and guiding store trafficincluding persons and carts utilized in stores such as supermarkets forcollecting items to be purchased. In FIG. 1 a post means or standard 10embodying the present invention may be connected by a side rail 11 to asimilar post 12. Each of the posts 10 and 12 may be anchored to a floorstructure 14 illustrated in this example as concrete. It will beunderstood that the post means of the present invention may be employedwith other types of floor structures.

In detail the post means 10 may comprise a base member 20 made ofsuitable metal material such as steel and having an upstandingcylindrical collar 21 integral with an annular outwardly extendingflange 22 and an inwardly extending flange 23 which defines an axialopening 24 of selected diameter. The bottom face 25 of the base member20 may seat on the surface 26 of the floor structure 14, the axialopening 24 being aligned with a bore 27 having a diameter somewhatgreater than the diameter of opening 24 and having a suitable selecteddepth for purposes hereafter described.

The post means also includes the hollow cylindrical post member 28 madeof suitable metal material such as a 16 gauge chome-plated steel or anunplated tubing which may be covered with a decorative sleeve ofsuitable plastic or other material. The bottom open end 29 ofcylindrical member 28 may be sleeved over the upstanding collar 21 onthe base member and the bottom edge of the end 29 may seat as at 30 onthe exterior flange 22 adjacent the collar 21. The cylindrical member 28is rotatable with respect to the collar 21 and any side fittings such as31 (FIG. 1) may be readily aligned with an opposed side fitting bysimply turning the cylindrical member 28 to the proper direction.

The top and open end 33 of cylindrical member 28 may receive therewithina cup shaped insert member 34 having a downwardly facing annularshoulder 35 for seating on the top edge of open end 33. The insertmember 34 may be made of any suitable ductile metal. The insert member34 is provided with an axial opening 36 at the bottom of an upwardlyfacing recess 37.

A mounting shaft 38 made of suitable steel rod material extends throughaligned openings 36 and 24 and at its top end may be provided with athreaded portion 39 of preselected length such as /2 for threadedengagement with a nut 40 which may be received within recess 37 for suchthreaded engagement. The bottom end of shaft 38 may be provided with athreaded portion 41 of greater threaded length such as 2". The bottomthreaded end 41 threadedly engages an anchor means 42 which isexpandable to tightly frictionally engage the concrete side walls of thebore 27. Depending upon the depth of bore 27 and the desired depth oflocation of anchor means 42 any space between the top edge face of theanchor means 42 and the bottom surface 25 of the base member may befilled by a spacer member 44 of selected length and of metal material.In the event that the upper edge of a selected anchor means 42 does notabut interior flange 23 when anchor means 42 is fully threaded upwardupon threads 41 of shaft 38, it will be necessary to use the spacer 44to radially expand anchor means 42 in bore 27.

Anchor means 42 may be of well known form and may comprise side elements45 having wedge surfaces 46 engaged by wedge shoes 47 movable along thewedge faces 46 as the shaft 38 is turned so that the lower wedge shoes47 are forced upwardly and the top wedge shoes 48 are forced downwardlyby turning of the shaft.

A suitable cap 50 may be placed over the top end 33 of post member 28and insert member 34. Cap 50 includes a downturned annular flange 51which may be frictionally engaged with annularly spaced engagement ribs52 extending outwardly from the insert member 34. The frictionalengagement permits convenient installation and removal of cap 50.

Base member 20 may also be provided with a base cover 54 which mayinclude a downturned cylindrical wall 55 for seating on the floorsurface 26. Cover 54 includes an opening 56 which snugly and slidablyfits over the cylindrical member 28.

In installation after the bore 27 has been drilled in the concrete floorby suitable means, anchor means 42 in collapsed non-expanded positionmay be placed in bore 27, space member 44 if required also placedtherein, base member 20 placed on the floor surface 26 with opening 24in alignment with the bore, shaft 38 inserted through opening 24 andthreaded slightly to engage anchor means 42, cylindrical member 28sleeved over the shaft 38 and upstanding collar 21, the insert member 34placed over the top end of shaft 38 and seated on the top end of thecylindrical member 28, and then the nut 40 threaded on the top threadedend 39 of shaft 38. Upon tightening of nut 40 the nut will turn relativeto the shaft 38 until the short or /2" portion of the threads are fullyengaged so that further turning of the nut 40 will cause turning of theshaft 38. When this occurs shaft 38 will further threadedly engage theanchor means 42 and draw the anchor means upwardly to remove any slackbetween the anchor means, spacer member, and base member and then causesideward expansion of the anchor means to rigidly, solidly, frictionallyengage the anchor means with the concrete floor. As the anchor means isexpanded, turning of the shaft 38 by the drive nut 40 places somecompression on the cylindrical member 28 which is transmitted throughthe insert member to the base member and thence to the concrete floor.Upward compressive forces act on the spacer member 44 between the anchormeans and the interior flange 23 of the base member. It will thus beapparent that the shaft 38 may be placed under some tension and thecylindrical member 28 placed under some compression.

It will thus be apparent that as the nut and shaft are further turnedthe post construction becomes solidly and rigidly fixed to the floor 14because as the anchor becomes fixed in the bore 27 the base member ispressed even more tightly against the floor surface 26. In the event,the post is not perpendicular to the floor, suitable shims may bereadily placed beneath the exterior flange 22.

In FIG. 3 a modification of the base member 20 is shown in which theexterior flange 22 is provided with a flat edge 60 which may beapproximately tangential to the cylindrical collar 21. When the postconstruction is used as a gate post, the fiat edge 68 may be placedparallel to the passageway provided by the gate so that even a minimumof obstruction at floor level is avoided.

In FIG. 4 is illustrated a further modification of the post constructionin which the base member may comprise a circular plate 62 welded as at63 to the bottom end portion 29 of a tubular post member 28. Thecircular plate 62 provides internal flanges as in the prior embodiment.External flanges, however, may be quite narrow in width so as to avoidobstruction at floor level and obviate cutting of a segment therefrom asin FIG. 3.

It will be apparent that in the construction shown in FIG. 4 the basemember 62, tubular member 28, and the other components of theconstruction as shown in FIG. 2 which includes insert member 34, shaft38, anchor 42, spacer member 44 and the nut 40, may be assembled looselyas a unit so that when the assembled post construction is installed theanchor means 42 on the lower end of the shaft 38 may be simplypositioned in bore 27 in the floor and the nut 40 tightened as in theprior embodiment to firmly secure the post construction. Installationtime is reduced to a minimum.

Various modifications and changes may be made in the post constructiondescribed above which come within the spirit of the invention, in allsuch modifications and changes coming within the scope of the appendedclaim are embraced thereby.

I claim:

.1. In a post construction for rapid installation in preassembledcondition, the combination of:

a base means having an opening and adapted to rest upon an associatedsupporting structure also having an opening, said base opening alignedwith said associated supporting structure opening;

an elongated open-ended hollow means aligned with said base opening andsupported at one end by said base means;

an insert means carried by the other end of the hollow means and havingan opening aligned with said base and associated supporting structureopenings;

tension shaft means extending through said openings and having a shaftend portion extending beyond said base means and received in saidassociated supporting structure opening;

said shaft portion being provided with means for anchoring said postconstruction received in said associated supporting structure opening ina radially 5 6 contracted condition so as to be free to slidably moveportion may extend further beyond said base means into said associatedsupporting structure opening; for securing said hollow means undercompression by stop means supported by said base means and extendingplacing said shaft means under tension.

partially over said structure opening for initially preventing slidablemovement of said radially contracted 5 References Cited anchoring meansand engageable with said anchor UNITED STATES PATENTS means for holdingthe post construction in pre-instal- 1,746,672 1 30 Nylund et 1 52 7 4latlon assembly; and 2,529,780 11/1950 Miller 248-459 said shaft meansincluding securement and actuating means at said insert means forslidably moving said 10 FRANK ABBOTT Prmary Exammerradially contractedanchor means within said associs, D BURKE, Assistant E i ated supportingstructure opening until said anchor means abuts said stop means andthereafter radially expanding said anchor means so that said shaft end52 3 1 704

